Much has been written in recent years concerning the adverse effect that stress, induced by modern-day living, particularly in urban areas, has upon the health and welfare of a human being. It has now been established that stress caused by an upheaval in a person's life such as a divorce or the like, loss of a job, change of location and similar events, often will produce stress which precedes serious illness such as cancer, stroke or heart disease.
Numerous books have been written on ways to relieve stress and anxiety. In addition, exercise systems, biofeed back systems and the like have been developed to aid a person to obtain both physical and mental relaxation. Normally, such systems are employed in conjunction with physical devices which are designed to stimulate the senses, particularly the sense of sight and sound, of the individual seeking relaxation. Such devices are generally intended to provide an environment for the individual which shuts out outside interferences.
Some devices go as far as to provide an enclosure for the individual and to bombard the individual's senses while in the enclosure for the purpose of inducing relaxation, both physical and mental (U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,266). Other devices have been employed which are less elaborate but which generally involve a device which includes a headset for transmitting sound and means for providing a visual display in conjunction with the sound.
Of the prior art devices only one, an enclosure described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,266 discloses any means for stimulating the olfactory senses of the user. However, with such a device, the user must be within the enclosure during which he is also subjected to visual as well as auditory stimulation.
The prior art devices which aid in inducing a state of relaxation, can generally be classified as "passive", that is to say they require no participation by the user. Consequently, the prior art devices often will induce a state of hypnosis or sleep, which goes beyond stress relief and relaxation. In addition, all the prior art devices require a visual display and thus require means for making such a display such as a video screen or the like which can be bulky and inconvenient to transport.